Norrie’s may well be the first of their kind

In what may be a world first, the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages has provided community activist norrie mAy-welby with a Recognised Details Certificate saying that norrie is without gender.

Norrie was born male in Scotland, but at 23 underwent hormone treatments and surgery to construct a vagina, receiving a gender recognition certificate as female in Australia.

Norrie later came to feel this was not correct either and ceased taking hormones, feeling a neuter identity fit best.

In January, doctors declared they could not categorise norrie as male or female, as norrie had no gonads, an atypical hormonal system and identified as neuter.

Norrie and the Sex And Gender Education (SAGE) lobby group then approached Births, Deaths and Marriages to obtain legal recognition of norrie’s non-gender.

“The first thing we were told at the counter was that it can’t be done,” norrie said. “Then we spoke to her boss who told us it had never been done before.

“With a bit of pushing that became, ‘We’ll see what we can do’. Then it was just a matter of doing all the paperwork and being left up in the air as they still weren’t very optimistic they could do it. Then they suddenly decided they could do it — and they did it.”

Norrie received the ‘Sex Not Specified’ certificate in the post the night before the Mardi Gras parade.

“It’s just a piece of paper but it’s world-changing. It means society will start to deal with reality instead of fantasy,” norrie said.

“It means whenever I go in and fill in paperwork and someone says are you a Mr or a Miss, I can say I’m neither, here’s a piece of paper saying that — please comply.

Norrie’s bank has recognised the new details and having spoken with Centrelink, norrie expects they will too.

The next hurdle will be to see if norrie can obtain a ‘gender not specified’ passport using the certificate.